Recaps

Li Yan returned to the Phantom Sect, learned the scale of the Devil Race invasion, and joined Bai Rou’s squad at Windcool Mountain. After surviving dangerous missions, he and Bai Rou were chosen for a covert rescue that could bring a powerful ally into the war.

• Li Yan proved his identity to the Phantom Sect elders, reunited with Wei Zhongran, and obtained materials for his growth-type magic treasure.
• Wei Zhongran explained the Devil Race’s breaches and forces, then assigned Li Yan to guard Windcool Mountain while the rest of Small Bamboo Peak’s disciples served near the Yin Demon Cliff Rift.
• Li Yan joined Bai Rou’s Ninth Squad and learned how Shuang Qingqing had helped Bai Rou advance her cultivation and refine her puppets.
• Bai Rou described the enemy’s hidden forces and deadly tactics, while Li Yan’s Snow Mosquito King helped the squad survive a battle that killed three members and badly wounded others.
• Tutai and the other masters discussed the Devil Race’s plans, possible routes into the rift, and a formal offensive they intended to begin within ten days.
• Wei Zhongran and Elder Chi Gong selected Li Yan and Bai Rou for a sensitive mission to rescue two Luoshu Lake disciples held in Zhouyang Town.
• Li Yan concluded that the rescuers would need to kill the two Devil cultivators guarding the prisoners and disguise themselves as scouts while crossing enemy territory.

Li Yan led Bai Rou and three companions through enemy territory to find two Luo Shu Lake informants, defeating the Devil Race pursuers and infiltrating Zhouyang Town under disguise. The group found the informants in a courtyard, where Li Yan bargained with Jiao Hua while probing the demonic cultivators’ plans.

• Wei Zhongran assigned Li Yan to retrieve two Luo Shu Lake disciples and secretly ordered him to conceal the mission’s purpose.
• Li Yan led Bai Rou, Hu Xiaowang, Yan Feijun, and Sun Guoshu toward Zhouyang Town, where Devil Race forces attacked and pursued them.
• Li Yan lured Wuyuan and Gefeng away from the group, defeated Wuyuan, and returned after Bai Rou and the others killed Wang Changkun’s squad in their formations.
• The group reached Zhouyang Town and searched for the informants as Devil Race squads gathered and patrols tightened around the town.
• Li Yan used a devil core to disguise himself and his companions, passed them through the inspection, and assigned them separate search areas.
• Li Yan reunited the group at a ruined altar after Sun Guoshu found the informants’ courtyard, then led them inside to locate the Luo Shu Lake disciples.
• Li Yan identified the informants among Jiao Hua’s six captive Clear Spirit Sect disciples and began bargaining with Jiao Hua to learn the purpose of the gathering and the coming battle.

Li Yan led Bai Rou and the others out of Zhouyang Town, but Teng Wuji pursued them and forced them into a desperate fight. Li Yan and Bai Rou survived the battle only through outside intervention, while Li Yan fell into a strange, perilous state as Wei Zhongran treated his grievous injuries.

• Li Yan poisoned and crippled Jiao Hua, took the restriction tokens, and escaped Zhouyang Town with Bai Rou, Yu Yuanjun, and the others using a diversion at the gates.
• Teng Wuji pursued Li Yan’s disguised group, and Li Yan led them into a valley where Teng Wuji’s attacks injured Hu Xiaowang and Yan Feijun and shattered their escape route.
• Li Yan carried the group away on the Cloud-Piercing Willow, but Teng Wuji’s lightning struck them and left several unconscious as Li Yan and Bai Rou remained in the air.
• Teng Wuji trapped Li Yan in the Spirit-Absorbing Bottle and seized Bai Rou, but Li Yan escaped with the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and freed her before defending her with the Great Dragon-Elephant Array.
• Bai Rou’s puppets and Li Yan fought Teng Wuji and his White Blazing Demon Tiger, while Li Yan repeatedly risked himself to keep Teng Wuji from reaching the formation.
• Li Yan grievously wounded Teng Wuji with a final attack, then collapsed as the Little Purple Divine Dragon Elephant carried him into the formation and Bai Rou entrusted their survival to it.
• An unseen person seized Teng Wuji as he attacked the formation, while Li Yan found himself on a ghostly flame bridge and began to freeze and lose consciousness.
• Wei Zhongran treated Li Yan as Bai Rou and the others traveled north, but he warned that Li Yan might need to possess another body and suddenly sensed something was wrong.

After the Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood restored and strengthened Li Yan, he joined the war and was appointed captain of Azure Sixteenth Squad. He won the squad’s respect through a series of duels, then led its hundred cultivators to their new defensive post at Together-to-Death Ridge.

• Silver radiance drew Li Yan’s escaping soul back and rebuilt his body, while Wei Zhongran concealed the recovery by claiming he had used pills.
• Li Yan refined more Undying Nether Phoenix essence blood during a month of seclusion, advancing his Qiongqi Purgatory Art and cultivation before Wei Zhongran appointed him captain of Azure Bat Camp’s Sixteenth Squad.
• At Sixteenth Squad’s courtyard, Li Yan arrived amid a dispute between Phantom Sect cultivators and newly conscripted replacements, then accepted the challenge to prove his authority.
• Li Yan defeated Wang Ning and Wu Ye with sand, poison, and concealed attacks, then won a poison duel against Gong Yuantai and stopped further challenges.
• Li Yan led a hundred cultivators to their assigned post, where defenders verified his order jade slip and showed him the fortified mountain and its exhausted garrison.